Columbus and Rowlandson’s Reactions to the Physical New World
The physical landscape of the new world was seen in many ways. Some saw it as beautiful, and a means to wealth, while others saw it as desolate. Christopher Columbus thought the new world was beautiful, while Mary Rowlandson saw the land as, “…vast and desolate Wilderness…” (Rowlandson, 489). The two saw the land differently, which could have been due to their vastly different circumstances. Columbus saw the land as beautiful, and when he landed on the island of Cuba in 1492, he said that, “this island even exceeds the others in beauty and fertility” (124). Columbus goes on to describe the trees, saying “Groves of lofty and flourishing trees are abundant” and that the lakes are
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30 the seven first verses, where I found, there was mercy promised again, if we would return to him by repentance; and though we were scattered from one end of the Earth to the other, yet the Lord would gather us together, and turn all those curses upon our Enemies. (493)
Just like that, her faith was returned and her hope replenished. God would help them by bringing them together, and then curse the Indians.
Being kidnapped by the Native Americans could have colored her view of the land, and of the people around her. One quotation that may hit on that fact was when Rowlandson said, “But when I was without, and saw nothing but Wilderness, and Woods, and a company of barbarous heathens” (498). It’s possible that she saw the landscape as something as wild as the Native Americans that kidnapped her and her family.
Christopher Columbus’ Journal of the First Voyage to America, 1492-1493 and Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration were two very different ways to view the landscape of the new world. While Columbus saw the beauty in the new world, Rowlandson only saw the sadder and uglier side of the new world. From enchanting and beautiful, to desolate wilderness, these authors bring into question how your situation can color your perception of something as simple as the